AP's Lewis suspended after McAuliffe flub

10/18/13 11:36 AM EDT

Bob Lewis, the Associated Press political reporter who last week published an erroneous report about Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, has been temporarily suspended, POLITICO has learned.

Lewis, a highly respected veteran on the Richmond political scene, will no longer cover the race between McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli, and may be suspended through the election. His last story on the race was published Oct. 14.

Lewis did not respond to a request for comment regarding the suspension. The Associated Press declined to comment on personnel matters.

On Oct. 9, Lewis published an exclusive report for the AP alleging that McAuliffe had lied to a federal official investigating a death benefits scam, seemingly upending one of this year’s most contentious political races. The Associated Press retracted the story one hour and thirty-eight minutes later, on the grounds that the initials referenced in the indictment did not identify McAuliffe. Lewis immediately took responsibility.

For the Associated Press, a worldwide organization that prides itself on its reputation for accuracy and thoroughness, the incident was a black mark on its credibility. In addition to getting its facts wrong, Lewis's initial report did not include a response to the accusation from the McAuliffe campaign, which did not “immediately” respond to a request for comment.

The retraction also sent shock waves throughout the political press corps, where friends and former colleagues of Lewis were shocked to see that a veteran reporter like Lewis had made such a mistake.

“Bob is as honest, as straightforward, as fair as anyone I know. He’s a great reporter who never had a partisan bone in his body,” Michael Shear, the New York Times White House correspondent who spent more than five years in Richmond, told POLITICO at the time.

“I don’t know what happened and it makes it harder to understand what happened given what I know about Bob," Amy Gardner, the Washington Post’s local politics editor, said. "He has always been the most aggressive, straight-shooting, tough-as-nails reporter."